Cake #14 - Food Bowl Cake

Thursday Cat Theme Cake - Food Bowl.

I am quite sure every child has at least once in their life had a sudden urge to taste pet food. Straight from the pet's bowl. (Or a piece of 'licorice' straight from the litter box...but that's another cake story.) Crunchy little things that may not look that bad - some brands of chocolate cereal actually sometimes look more suspicious. 

Believe or not, I have never tasted any industrially produced cat food. I let my two cats do the tasting all by themselves and if they happen to approve, I keep ordering the same food in 10 kg bags over and over again... until they let me know they would like to have something else for a change. So far they haven't, phew. Otherwise I might need to fill my next cake with Hill's Tuna...

This Food Bowl was a success with the family. How often are you allowed to eat the bowl, too? The cake was tasty and moist as it wasn't all sponge and icing just for the looks of it but a proper cake filled with berries, cream cheese and white chocolate.

Food Bowl Cake

Sponge

3 eggs

200 ml caster sugar

200 ml self-raising flour

1. Preheat oven to 175C / 350F and grease and flour a Ø 15 cm cake pan.

2. Beat eggs and sugar until white and fluffy.

3. Fold in flour.

4. Pour into pan and bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes.

5. Let cool completely before filling and decorating.

Filling

100 g berries of your choice

50 ml white chocolate powder

200 g cream cheese

1. Mix cream cheese and white chocolate powder together.

2. Carve the cake so that it looks like a bowl.

3. Fill the 'bowl' with berries and the white chocolate cheese but leave room for the actual 'cat food', that is, chocolate chips.

Icing

1st layer

150 g white chocolate, melted

100 g butter, melted

100 ml icing sugar

1. Mix butter and white chocolate together and sieve in icing sugar.

2. Mix until smooth.

3. Spread around the cake evenly and let set.

2nd layer

250 g icing sugar

2 tsp yellow food colouring

1 tbsp water (or more if too thick)

1. Mix icing sugar and food colouring together and add water gradually so that the icing does not get too runny but is still easy to spread.

2. Spread evenly on top of the white chocolate layer and also on the brim and inside the bowl. 

3. Let set.

Decorations

100 g dark chocolate 

1. Melt and pipe on baking parchment or silicone mat to form words or signs wanted

2. Let cool - I usually put the tray in the freezer where it takes only a few minutes to set.

3. While the decorations are setting, spread or pipe chocolate on the brim.

4. Remove the decorations from the paper / mat and stick on the side of the bowl.

100 g milk chocolate chips

1. Fill your bowl with cat food chocolate chips. 

2. Remember not to give this bowl to your cat. 

Bon Appetit!